c1890s HARTFORD ILLUSTRATED PHOTOGRAVURES CAPITOL M TWAIN S COLT HOMES WITTEMANN

Description

Up for auction is a fascinating old book of views of Hartford, Connecticut, called
Hartford / Illustrated / Photo-Gravures
on the title page. The book's copyright holder is A. Wittemann and printer is The Albertype Co., both of Brooklyn, New York. There's no date printed anywhere within the book, but my guess is it's from the 1890s or thereabouts, as the Wittemann brothers founded The Albertype Co. in 1890. Besides well-known city buildings and street views, there are photos of the residences of Mark Twain and Samuel Colt illustrated within.
The oblong album, whose pages are held together by blue plastic clips / clasps (possibly added later?), measures approximately 7 inches wide by 5 inches high and is unpaginated but comprises (by my count) 64 pages, 30 of which are printed with captioned photogravure images of Hartford and environs, both vertical and horizontal views.
The title page reads:
. . HARTFORD . .
ILLUSTRATED.
PHOTO-GRAVURES
COPYRIGHT BY / A. WITTEMANN, / PUBLISHER OF AMERICAN VIEWS, / 250 ADAMS ST., / BROOKLYN-NEW YORK.
THE ALBERTYPE CO., / BROOKLYN, N. Y.
Next are two pages of (unsigned) introductory text, followed by the images, which are captioned thus (note that some pages have two photos on them):
CONNECTICUT STATE CAPITOL.
MEMORIAL ARCH.
MEMORIAL ARCH AND FOUNTAIN, BUSHNELL PARK.
VIEW NORTH FROM THE CAPITOL DOME.
CAPITOL--HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES.
CAPITOL--MAIN ENTRANCE.
CAPITOL--SENATE CHAMBER.
CHARTER OAK CHAIR--SENATE CHAMBER.
PAINTING OF GEORGE WASHINGTON IN SENATE CHAMBER.
THE ORIGINAL CHARTER--SENATE CHAMBER.
CAPITOL WAR TROPHIES AND GOVERNOR BUCKINGHAM STATUE.
NATHAN HALE STATUE. GOVERNOR BUCKINGHAM STATUE AND TROPIES. CAPITOL CORRIDORS.
GOVERNOR'S ROOM--CAPITOL.
THE GENIUS OF CONNECTICUT. ENTRANCE HALL OF STATE CAPITOL.
HORACE WELLS STATUE. RICHARD D. HUBBARD STATUE.
POND VIEW IN BUSHNELL PARK.
WINTER SCENE--BUSHNELL PARK.
CHARTER OAK TREE.
STATE STREET. FIRST AND HARTFORD NAT'L BANKS. HARTFORD COURANT.
MAIN STREET. AETNA BUILDING AND NATHAN HALE STATUE.
Y. M. C. A. BUILDING.
KEENEY MEMORIAL TOWER.
CENTER CHURCH.
FIRST REGIMENT ARMORY.
WASHINGTON STREET.
RESIDENCE OF SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN.)
HIGH SCHOOL.
FARMINGTON AVENUE.
RESIDENCE OF COL. COLT.
COLT MEMORIAL.
Here's some information on the Wittemann brothers and their Albertype Company, courtesy Wikipedia:
An
Albertype
is a picture printed from a type of gelatine-coated plate produced by means of a photographic negative. The process was invented by Josef Albert
,
a German photographer who owned and directed a studio and photo lab in Augsburg.
The technique is similar to collotype, but substitutes the gel plate for the lithographic stone used in collotype.
Heliotype, invented in 1871 by Edwards, is another similar process.
Albert's innovation was to replace the copper or stone with glass, construct a mechanical press, and cover it with another gel layer, silicate mixed with gelatin, in order to produce about two thousand prints from each plate using etching presses and hand rollers. This new process was presented at the 1868 Photographic Exhibition in Hamburg and "albertype" was the name given by Josef Albert. This technique was adopted by publishers creating thousands of postcards and viewbooks.
In 1890 Adolph and Herman L. Wittemann founded the Albertype Company, a postcard and viewbook publishing company. This company began to use what were then "new technologies" such as the albertype to reproduce photo-mechanical images. At that time they were able to collect negatives from the cities and towns of the United States and came to create more than 25,000 prints from 1890 to 1952.
The overall condition of this book of Hartford views is fair to good, considering its great age. The three blue plastic clips, possibly a later edition, look great, but the silvered blue paper-covered boards are quite chipped, edgeworn, spotted, and damaged (at the spine). The green-on-cream tiny floral-design pastedown end pages and all the pages within are quite age-toned / yellowed / browned / shadowed, with spotting, smudging, chipping, paper loss (mostly at the corners and edges), etc., of the now quite friable / crumbly pages, most of which are coming away from the spine. There are no human-made annotations, marginalia, underlining, or other markings seen anywhere, nor any major damage or flaws in the way of missing or clipped pages, very large tears, water or liquid damage, tape repairs, etc. The view book has neither a musty nor smoky odor.
This circa 1890s book of photogravures,
Hartford Illustrated,
is being sold AS IS, AS DESCRIBED ABOVE AND PICTURED WITHIN. I am setting what I feel is a reasonable starting price for the auction, and there is NO RESERVE. I am also including a Buy It Now price.
Shipping and
handling for the book, which will be sent wrapped and in a small box, so as not to damage the blue ties: to U.S. addresses (via Media Mail).
If you are from another country and are SERIOUSLY interested in bidding on or buying this item, and only if you have 100% feedback, please contact me and I will do my best to get back to you with a quote for the shipping and handling. But please be aware of the fact that the U.K. and E.U. are now charging VAT for all purchases on eBay, with eBay adding the correct amount to the invoice (which could be a major deterrent to buying books for many outside the U.S. -- as if the steep cost of shipping internationally weren't enough!).
If you want the item sent more quickly to you (e.g., via Priority Mail in the U.S.), you must request this asap after winning or purchasing it (or beforehand, if possible), and I will adjust the amount accordingly.
I will do my best to send the item out to you no more than 2-3 business days following receipt of payment (that is, when eBay informs me that your payment has been posted to or otherwise cleared in my account).
If you are the winner or buyer of this item, PAYMENT IS EXPECTED WITHIN TWO WEEKS (14 DAYS) FROM THE PURCHASE DATE. If you cannot pay within this time frame, PLEASE contact me asap so we can work something out. I'm very flexible and understanding, but I would appreciate communication from you one way or another.
PLEASE NOTE THAT RETURNS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED NOR REFUNDS MADE FOR THIS BOOK OF VIEWS OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, SO PLEASE READ MY DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY, LOOK CLOSELY AT THE PHOTOGRAPHS I’VE UPLOADED, AND ASK ME ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE ABOUT THE CONTENTS OR CONDITION OF THE ITEM. THANKS FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING!
Thanks for looking, and please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions about
Hartford Illustrated,
a collection of photogravures from A. Wittemann and The Albertype Co.
PLEASE NOTE THAT I WILL HAPPILY ADJUST SHIPPING CHARGES FOR MULTIPLE PURCHASES!!!
ALSO, PLEASE NOTE THAT, IF APPLICABLE, eBAY WILL ADD ANY APPROPRIATE STATE SALES TAX TO THE INVOICE.